Deryn

Welcome to eGullet, Matt. I know what you mean - I lurked for years and felt I already knew so many very well but could never talk to them so I too had to register not that long ago. May I ask what exactly you mean by 'elevated' home kitchen? Do you just mean remodelling (better than before) or are you building a kitchen in a tree house?

All I can do is concur with you about those two teas - the Gold Peak (which I don't buy because of the 'ingredient list' you mentioned) and the Pure Leaf which I do buy occasionally down south when I am too lazy to just put some tea bags in a pitcher and wait for it to cool down. I also buy unsweetened. I too have noticed that slightly tart 'might be something resembling lemon in the background' taste in the Pure Leaf although it is still the better alternative between the two mentioned. Sometimes you can find a store brand that isn't too awful depending on where you shop/live but 'brewed from fresh' flavour available at a grocery store .. not too likely I think. Most of them have something in them to 'preserve' them since they don't sell 'that' fast and had to endure shipping time as well, etc. Sometimes I treat myself to an unsweetened green ginger tea at Starbucks (for way too high a price - I could buy a gallon or more of the crappy stuff for that price - but it is 'sort of' fresh).

If Gail and Mollie knew what they were missing, I am sure they would both be right up to visit you! Perhaps we should work on that for next year. In the meantime, I look forward to what you will do with their recipes, etc. And I am glad to see you arrived safely.

Waiting with bated breath to hear if Gail and Mollie will be visiting Manitoulin or somehow significantly influencing your culinary excursions up there this visit.

Desperation, and the employment of new college/marketing grads who have never cooked a meal in their lives, call for 'desperate measures' (not always good ones though). In my estimation, unless all they all want is the entire market share of college kids, they should figure out new ways to use their products AS food, beyond just eating them out of the package - but then I am an old fogey.

I might consider this fridge if it was available without the water/ice dispenser and its price was more reasonable. I have a Frigidaire 'convertible' freezer/fridge (not compartmentalized though as you mentioned) already so I could use one for freezing only and one for all fridge should the need arise. And, while no fridge brand these days is very good in terms of reliability and longevity it seems, my experience with a Samsung fridge in my NC house has been excellent so far - and I like their 2 compressor set up. However, I will never ever buy a fridge again with the water/ice dispenser - that is just asking for problems, not to mention it takes up a lot of room that I can use for other things and those dispensers bump up the initial cost substantially as well.

hummingbirdkiss - If you don't have a dehydrator of any kind, consider getting one. You may be able to find one at a thrift store, or failing that, a Nesco from a big box store may be your solution - at least temporarily - for that harvest you are going to reap this year. You can dehydrate that fruit and use it later to make the jams if you want, or just keep it almost indefinitely till you decide on how to use it. Better to dehydrate than lose it all if you can use it up quickly.

Have a safe trip, Kerry and Anna. I hope the weather will be great while you are up there this time and the emergencies few and far between so Kerry can enjoy your sojourn as much as possible. I look forward to your reports of life on Manitoulin - as always.

If I were to stop to eat while on one of my trips, I would take too long to get where I am going. And I would not be able to time my trips to miss the worst traffic hours near the large cities - a problem from Washington DC and on up the east coast. And my dog's medicines would unfortunately be ruined by the time I got to my destination where I can put them in a proper fridge again. I am jealous of those of you who somehow have figured out how to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. But, though I don't go in to eat anywhere along my route, I also do not stop at fast food places either, despite them being at every gas station from here to Timbuctoo. The one exception to that is that I will occasionally pick up a sandwich at Subway - with little to no meat but as many vegetables and pickles (hot spicy ones) as I can get them to fit into the bun. I get them to cut the bun in small (usually 2-bite) pieces so I can safely handle it while driving. I crave vegetables when driving, not sure why that is. Deep fried foods or hamburgers and fries just sit in my stomach like lumps so I avoid those, even when not travelling, but especially when travelling. If I am on a trip longer than a day (which most of them are - most are now 3-4 days straight through, with very little sleep), I stop at grocery stores if I can find one close by the highway and buy fresh ingredients like guacamole, pico de gallo, salad makings, fresh fruit and hummus to put together my own noshes (along with a rotisserie chicken for the dog). Decent restaurants (even if I liked eating alone, had time to do so and could leave my dog in the car for that long) are not often to be found within feet of the main highway (or if they are, I don't know where to find them) but I do try to eat healthily when I am travelling despite not having a way to cook for myself on a trip. By the 3rd day of driving I often get tired, so when going north along the coast when it is not winter or otherwise inclement weather, I do sometimes deek off the main highway and follow the coastal/old Post road for a bit hoping to pick up more gourmet fare like a fresh lobster roll. And I may sit for a few minutes in the shade then too to savour that treat. Coming south I have never found a place that was interesting enough to make a special stop at for a meal of any kind. Maybe someday, I can go on a leisurely vacation and re-learn how to enjoy the journey more. I cannot recall a car trip yet in the past 30 years though that was not on a deadline of some kind. It used to be fun. Not so much so nowadays.

Toronto to NYC and back. Several times a year when I was a kid, even in winter (for Christmas with my grandparents). No Thruway in those days - yes, I well remember and it used to take from 3 a.m. till well after dark, even without stopping for food. The first car we did it in (that I remember) was an old Singer sportscar - no back seat, no top (well, I think there was one but Dad was restoring the car and I think it was missing at the time), 2 kids (my sister was not born at the time) wrapped up together in my father's old flying jacket to keep us warm, wedged behind the front seat, in the open and often brisk air. All we wanted to was to make the journey safely and get there to eat at my grandparents' house. We were not poor but we never went to restaurants when I was a child - except once a year, to a steakhouse, as a celebration after the eistesffod. The only other time I went to a restaurant was when my grandmother would take us for orange sherbet at Howard Johnson's or to the Bird Cage at Lord and Taylor's for lunch while shopping. Dad was not about to break that tradition just because we were travelling - and with a rowdy crew such as we kids were, I don't blame him. I am glad he didn't too - because in those days, to eat in a restaurant usually meant (as far as my parents were concerned) that a) you had to be on your best behaviour (which kids don't always seem to do well - to be honest, my brother ate like a Goop) and b) you had to be cleaned up and wearing your best clothes (which would have been difficult considering how we were packed and rumpled in that old car). And, we would never have gotten to NYC in a day if we had stopped for food. The car felt fast (since it was an open air vehicle) but I don't think we made especially good time. I can do it now in half the time we took back then. You and my uncle would have gotten along famously, Shel. I, on the other hand, am my father's daughter. Different strokes for different folks. I used to be annoyed at myself at the amount of stuff I had to clean out of my car at the end of a trip, but, since my dog sheds buckets year round and doesn't seem too concerned about his mess, I blame it all on him now (and am not concerned that I also make a bit of a mess in the car). My vehicles are not leased. They are bought new and I tend to be a bit more careful when they are new but they are driven till they die - so even if there are crumbs left somewhere, I never was too concerned about some new owner or lease company being more finicky than I am about its nooks and crannies.

One more thought. I am rather 'chesty'. Most of the crumbs never land far from my neck. Perhaps I should use one of those 'crumb-catcher' bibs that we used to put on babies - the ones with the little pocket on them at the bottom - while driving and eating. Hmmm.

I am surprised that MC hasn't come out with a better 'definition' of what they really want to cover in this book or what they are asking us to talk about. Isn't 'precision' something that MC enthusiasts generally insist upon?

If I didn't eat in the car when I am on a long trip (2k plus miles), I would not eat for days. Sometimes the car is stopped when I am eating. Sometimes the car is moving while I am eating. I never have anyone except my dog for company so there is no way I am going to waste time sitting down in a restaurant by myself when I have many miles to go before I sleep and the daylight hours are short. I also am not going to leave my dog in the car (especially in hot weather) while I go in for a leisurely meal. And I hate eating alone in a restaurant anyway. That said, I do not eat anything in the car that requires me to take attention from the road. And I do not attempt to even chew gum when the road conditions are not great - weather, terrain, traffic, etc. Two family memories: I had an aunt and uncle who owned a Jaguar. When they went on a trip, my aunt would pack any food in a very secure box and locked it in the luggage compartment. When they arrived at destination, it would be carried well away from the car before it could be opened. Her children were absolutely forbidden from having any kind of food or beverage in the car at any time for any reason. She brushed the crumbs off them before they could enter. Miserable people. They rarely went anywhere further than the local yacht club and for good reason. My parents gave me a 'lived in' car lifestyle. We often piled into the car for long trips and the first thing my mother did was hand us all little baggies with small things like raisins to nibble on. Had we not had those, we would puke all over the seats (since every one of us was prone to carsickness). The 'picnic basket' was in the main part of the car with us and it was raided if need be to ensure Dad could keep driving instead of having to stop constantly for three kids screaming they were hungry from the back seat. My father only had one arm he could use but he usually drove. My mother would feed him sandwiches as he watched the road and handled the wheel with his left hand. He would not have been able to eat at all most of the day if my mother had not fed him - at least not without removing his only hand from the wheel - which was not safe. We always seemed to be on the road. Our car was tidy and relatively crumb free between trips. Way back in those days though, there were far fewer restaurants (and no 'fast food' joints) along the road to stop at. If you wanted food, you brought it with you from home. And even if there had been places to stop to eat, my parents didn't want to have to corral three rambunctious kids to do so. Don't blame them.

Is this to include leavened (with either yeast or other leaveners?) and unleavened breads? Sweet (including doughnut type breads) and savoury? Exactly what does the term 'bread' encompass these days? Ottawa Ontario Canada - birthplace of Hooker's Beavertails (a yeast leavened 'dough' flatbread of sorts - can be topped with/dipped in either sweet or savoury ingredients - garlic, cinnamon, cheese). I would call it a 'bread' but perhaps we need more explanation because it isn't, in Beavertail form, a 'loaf' really. I too would have mentioned steamed brown bread for instance but it is not a yeast bread, at least the recipe I know (which has East Coast roots as far as I know - and is baked in Nova Scotia as well as along the northeastern United States - particularly where it is known as Boston Brown Bread).

Thanks, Kerry. I look forward to hearing about the results of your experiment. (p.s. I was hoping something about this quest would intrigue you but since this is the 'ready to eat' forum I didn't want to ask you here.) Stephan, since I am not diabetic I certainly don't judge those who are who like or believe commercial low/no sugar chocolates are better for them but 70% or higher regular chocolate would probably be what I would choose if I was a choco-addict and a diabetic too. Or I might choose to use unsweetened cocoa and just make brownies with a sugar substitute to satisfy choco-cravings.

Forbidden rice is black but purple when cooked. The name can actually can refer to any black rice from what I understand - and there are several. Bhutan red rice is supposed to be grown in the Himalayas (but there are other red rices too). It is red(dish-brown), partially hulled, and pinkish (well, it can be darker than 'pink' in my experience) and a bit sticky usually when cooked. Both are, to my mind, far more flavourful than white rice. And I like their grainy-like textures. I love all rices. But, if I am eating white rice (which I try not to do too much), I try to use converted (because it is better for you than non-parboiled). The darker rices are, like 'brown' rice, better nutritionally for you. Supposedly Forbidden rice has more antioxidants in it than blueberries. Characteristics? Not quite sure what you mean by that .. and not sure I can tell you. Buy a bit and try them, Shel.

Found some Choco-Rite (both dark and milk, made with erythritol) today at Walgreens - in the diabetic testing area. Not exactly boxed in such a way as to seem like a nice 'gift' (sort of clinical packaging) so I will stop by TJs for sure along the road somewhere. Has anyone tried these?

Thanks, GlorifiedRice. That suggestion is worth a try - sounds plausible.

I react to some (particularly Xylitol and Maltitol) sugar alcohols (even in fairly small amounts it seems) and it is not pleasant at all - so I am a bit shy of them, even in chewing gum. Mind you, I have not noticed the same effect when these same sugar alcohols are present naturally, in fruit for instance. There are other options for sweetening chocolates - agave being another, besides stevia. I am not a personal fan of agave either, but these are not for me. The ones I found online however seem to be more specialty products like the stevia ones, and again ordering is probably just not in the cards right now. Thanks for the TJs chocolate bar link (Amazon link but I was able to read about it there), Shel. I will probably go that route much as it doesn't appeal to me to give her maltitol - but maybe that is what she is used to anyway since other types seem harder to get.

A neighbour in Nova Scotia asked me to pick up some no-sugar (diabetic 'safe') chocolates while I am down in the States. I did browse local stores and didn't come up with anything and now have left it too late to buy online I think (especially with the heat lately). I will be passing by a TJs on my way back north in the next few days - do they still stock a decent no-sugar chocolate bar (preferably stevia sweetened)? (Perhaps I should ask this in the TJ's thread? Sorry if it is in the wrong place.) If not, then does anyone else have any suggestions for a store along/not far off my route (most likely I-81 to Scranton PA then across to I-95 well east of Hartford CT). Reading online I think I would prefer to buy her stevia sweetened than a malitol sweetened bar (since I forgot to ask her if she has a problem with sugar alcohols, this may be a safer choice). I would also bet, though I neglected to enquire, that she prefers a milk-chocolate (otherwise, wouldn't a regular bitter or semi-sweet chocolate be a choice some diabetics might make?) Note: If I were diabetic, I think I would avoid all 'diabetic' products myself and just be more cautious about what I eat, etc. but this was a specific request and it is not my place to suggest that, particularly since I am not the one having to deal with the condition.

I am way too aware of this these days. Jacques couldn't have been more correct.

I agree with Mr. Miller. I don't think it really will make a difference one way or another if schools have or don't, use or don't use, a deep fat fryer. I doubt kids are going to get any slimmer if the fryers are put back in but I also doubt they are going to put on more weight either as a result of them being reinstituted. I hope that is not all he is doing, mind you - I hope that he is still conscious of the need to make 'some' changes from the diet that used to be back when the fryers were there - and isn't just completely capitulating to student demands. I think more damage has been done by the way the extreme opposite (of what is now deemed completely unhealthy) was instituted than would have been done over the long haul if things had stayed the same as they used to be. Small improvements to the diet offered in schools, over time, would have been a much better idea - but this country is given to swinging the pendulum wildly and never allowing it to settle in the middle. I agree with you too, radtek. Unfortunately, your suggested lunch doesn't even come close to meeting the current 'guidelines' that schools taking funding assistance to feed kids who supposedly cannot afford a decent lunch require them to meet either. And in some places/schools, if you were to show up with a packed lunch such as you suggest, some or all of it would be confiscated, if the school/board/district remains part of the School Lunch program. That needs to change! I think you are right too that eliminating the 'hot lunch' would be a cost savings that could easily fund your approach - and I would applaud that as well - though maybe part of that is because I grew up never even having a cafeteria in any school I attended till I was in university - so unless I walked home for lunch, it was never 'hot'. Of course, we never had chips either. The program itself and how it was instituted, in my humble opinion, stinks - and has just cost us all a LOT more money in wasted food and probably helped to add to the weight problem (because kids sneak off and buy a lot of junk food as a result of being hungry) than just leaving things as they were. What really is needed I think is for schools to start putting back recess (without so many restrictions that kids are scared to do anything but stand in a corner the whole time instead of kicking around a ball or playing hide-and-seek) and PT/PE periods at least 3 times a week as well. And make a lot of them walk to school too (any place it is not too dangerous for them to do so and/or the distance is less than a mile or two). Kids will burn off a lot of energy/food (and it helps them focus better too) if exercise is included in the curriculum but most schools would rather talk about the food aspect than that. Along with that, small additions/changes to the menus which move in a more positive direction over time, may be helpful in getting kids to try new things that are healthier. Or keep the same foods but make sure the ingredients are a bit less fatty, that they are 'cleaner' (if not organic), etc. Radical changes instituted quickly will usually always be a failure in the long run.

The name is scary. I know there is a market for their products, but, even if I was in that market, I might avoid the place just based on the name. Not great marketing. Do hope they do well, mind you.

My local Asheville WF doesn't seem to have the 'good', 'better', 'best' signs up as yet - looked for them the other day. Guess this town is behind the times still but I am sure we will catch up soon. Didn't notice any tattoo'd/overly pierced/rude or indifferent checkout personnel either.

I haven't tasted the lime juice yet. I did like the lemon however - for a bottled juice. Perhaps the lime doesn't process or keep as well - haven't opened my first bottle as I just stocked up yesterday (and intended to take them back north before I used it). Oh well. I am sure I can find some use for it where that may not matter too much, but, I will be sorry if it is not good as I expected it to be. Thanks for your opinion.